Can someone explain the thoughts of current sellers?

[1dilemma]

OK I will try and explain myself, falling house prices, possibly a recession, banks just don't want to lend money, lots of info available pointing out the bubble in the market and how houses 'need' to fall by 30-50% to make them in any way affordable (and predictions of this over the next 3 years at least). Loads of properties here on the market for over 6 months with the odd 10K chipped off the price every few months not a buyer in sight. I could go on but you get the picture.

Lots of threads on here about people wanting to sell but want last Summers price in todays market so decide to stay or rent out their house.

I do not wish to imply criticism of anyone I realise we all make the choices that are right for us and I know nothing about peoples individual circs but I'm not sure what people are expecting.

Are people not really wanting to sell?
Do they believe that all this will be reversed in a few months?
Are estate agents not telling it like it is?
Am I the only one who knocks at least a further 15% off rented because it's been so poorly maintained?
DO people believe renting is trouble free?
Am I completely wrong?

(FWIW I'm in London, should be buying but not remotely interested at these prices/in this market)

My be;lief is that the only people who have really profitted from the ridiculous rise in prices seen over recent years were people who for example sold up modest but massively over inflated properties in London and relocated to cheaper areas, hence either substantially increasing the type of property they were able to live in or released a large sum of money.

We have had a decade of bloody property programmes going on about how wonderful fantastic etc etc it is to buy a house and feel smug and gloating, but the reality is many people have had to sell their souls to meet a basic need. When a large group of people in any society literally cannot afford to meet their need for a secure home then slowly but surely the society becomes unstable and disenfranchised. Eventually it starts to affect everyone in that society to a greater or lesser extent.

To answer the Ops question, i don't think people are beingn stubborn or denying the reality of the situation, but as others have pointed out many will be mortgaged up to the hilt and won't have any choice about moving or taking low offers. Myself and dp have been trying to seel for nearly two years and have condidered every option, we would give the bloody house away if it meant a fresh start! Estate agents are still I think trying to deny what is happening, where qe come from offices are starting to close but they still try to dissuade you from lowering the price (we have already lowered ours by about 15% but I think that we will have to go much lower to ever have a chance of getting out of here).

No-ones a winner

willwe as someone has said if you are upsizing you are a winner!

Agree with the rest of your post high property prices transfer wealth from the poor to the rich and the young to the old read that somewhere and it's kinda stuck it is so true

We have 1 new estate agent opened in the last couple of months, I know they have at least 1 property on the books but nothing in the window I think they have extended their free offer, they have a reasonable site but no staff/customers. I can't remember what was there before it took them so long to do their shop up.
I almost feel sorry for them!
We have another one advertising itself as opening soon in the shop where a large agent has just shut down!

TSAP renting to your sister makes a lot of sense gets over some of the issues I mentioned earlier

We sold (London) to reasonable price (we followed the agent's advice not to overprice and we got 2000 pounds less than asking price), reasonably quickly (although it felt like an age and all these property threads were making me nervous).
Our house was spotless, completely redecorated in and out (luckily my partner is handy and I have renovated before). It had lots of period features, some I reintroduced, and the buyer really went for those.
We monitored competition and we found many people are selling because they are afraid of further price drops but they still ask for too much (we saw a two bed selling for the same price of our three bed, just down the street). Also to accommodate the buyer in the lowest part of chain we agreed to two weeks completion and now my partner has to find somewhere to rent asap.
Prices are falling in East London, wait for autumn and they always go down a bit more (they always did, even in good times).
I heard of other people selling successfully in my area, unfortunately those who didn't put house on the market in spring got nasty shock.

good thread...interesting as we're going to relocate v v soon.

so do estate agents pass on offers then? i wonder.

were looking at a couple of remote character country places...325 asking prices. on the market for a year.

i'm not paying more than 225. should i bother offering 200?

will the estate agent even pass it on?

am wasting my time. no-one else is interested in these places anymore...holiday cottage 2nd home type properties, but zero holiday cottage market.

am going to sell ours...325 18 months ago...would accept 275 now...but don't tell anyone...its a secret!

will be happy to rent high quality country cottage holiday let over the winter...hopefully we can do a sensible deal by then.

glad we sold our other place in jan 2007....helped all but pay off mortgage. v v lucky 2 b in such a good position.

case study over.

our house (Scotland, farmhouse ) took almst a year to sell - sold last month for 10 % over asking price .
Agent wanted us to drop price by 10% last autumn. We refused.

I have just had an offer accepted at 27% off original asking price and 20% off what I viewd it at.I would have liked 30 which is what i offered initially but it is a forever house and we are sick of our rental This is in the south east in a great road etc Agent was not at all shocked at our offer and said it was fair

AFAIK Stephen , an agent has to pass on any offer, regardless of how ridiculous it may seem.
#Now in practice, I'm sure this doesn't always happen. We offered on ahouse. were told it ws already under offer (although still being advertised) and I'm fairly certain our offer was never put forward.

The sale on that house actually fell through a few weeks later and we were still never contacted (my offer was below the asking price). As far as I'm aware it still hasn't sold. A bad agent indeed

i've got my property up for sale in west london now.

have to admit that i am on for about 5k more than my agent advised but i have a bottom line figure that i need to achieve to cover my moving costs.

i have 30k equity and don't really want to lose any of that but i would be upsizing out into suburbia and prices are coming down dramatically there.

i'd love to be able to rent this place out (excellent rental return) but need the equity to finance another purchase.

unfortunately rental prices are holding in the area i want to move to so i actually couldn't afford to rent there

it's not too desperate for me to move tbh, i could just dig in and ride this out but i'd prefer not to.

honestly, i might be being niave but i don't think the long term forecast is nearly as bad as the media is making out.

hope not anyway!

Paddle are you serious?It will be so hard to sell if you over price it and the long term forecast is dire with prices falling everywhere by at least 20% in the next 18 months.This is not scare mongering now but fact.The agent I bought with is a halifax so a building society aswell and he said they are advising all sellers to consider all offers atm He says they see no sign of any change in the near future

noddy, yeh i guess i am serious LOL.

forgot to mention that I had 3 valuations 2 suggested 5k more than I am on at and one suggested 5k less than I am on at.

I went with the agent who suggested less but told him what my asking price was. This agent has a good rep and good T&C in their contract.

Also, my price is competitive within the market around here.

So, all in all I feel it's the right decision for me at present.

I may revise my opinion over the next few weeks and either drop my price (if no interest) or take it off the market and dig in for the long haul.......

The problem is that sellers see the equity as 'their' money but it has only ever been on paper and is just part of the economic cycle so we have all been relying on this imaginary cash pot and now buyers are coming along and saying they won't pay it.

I have been trying to sell due to moving for jobs and better family support since sept 07 we went on 10k less than all 3 agents valued it at, we sold for 15k less but buyer pulled out in oct, went on again and in April we sold for 50k than original valuation, they dropped a further 20k which we agreed (but not happy with) so we were selling for 70k less on an original 310k house, the buyers still pulled out day b4 exchange even though they were getting a bargain! we now on market again and would take a reasonable offer and think we being very reasonable with our pricing. We will however now be renting not what we would choose to do but need to move and fed up with buyers taking the mick!! Wouldn't choose to do this but have no choice.

House we buying we paying 155k originally on for 189k

So I think most sellers who need to move know where market is going, but I am not prepared to give my house away!

wow tigger13 whereabouts if you don't mind me asking?
Also what price did you go on at the second time 240k or more?

We live in a really nice area on the outskirts of bristol, schools are great we in walking distance of shops restaurants and bus route to the center and 10mins from M4 so should be a desirable area!

We were on at first for £305k then dropped to £280 when first sell went no where and then we sold again at that price for 261 but they lost buyer so ended up reducing to 240 to keep chain going. agent still keen to sell us as i guess they see a property they could sell and at least get some commission! Now on at 249 but taking it off this week when exchange on one one we buying.

nancy75 - sorry not read all posts

I live in London and have dropped the price of house by 18% and would accept an over below that.

I have had some potential buyers saying if they deign to make an offer it will be on what they think the market will be in 6-8 months time.

I do not need to sell but would prefer to so happy to break even but buyers are few and far between and many don't know how much you have already dropped the prices by and don't care.

"... but buyers are few and far between and many don't know how much you have already dropped the prices by and don't care. "

Why should they care? It is nothing to do with them what the seller imagined they could make before the downturn. All that matters to potential buyers is whether the house would be a good buy at the price the can buy it for now. If other similar houses come on the market for £230k, based on current valuations, it doesn't matter a damn to any normal buyer that the asking price for your house was reduced from £300k.

upwind you are right We have been fed a load of nonsense by some house programmes and now everyone thinks their house is 'worth' what they say.It is worth what someone will pay and what the bank will lend.In fact it is worthless until the £ is in the bank.

well, if this latest press is to be believed I should cut my losses and get sold asap in order to buy a bigger property at a knockdown price before 2010!

uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080728/tuk-house-prices-will-soar-by25-45dbed5.html

Well I'd like to think that is an accurate prediction so that we don't have to stay in rental property for too long but a recovery - turing into a massive boom in that short a time period sounds incredily optimisitc!

The sceptic in me thinks the housing associations need properties to be built so thought they'd circulate a bit of propaganda.

But you never know. A bit a positive thinking might be all it takes

Get ready for the flood of sellers mentioning this report and asking for full asking price!

So the National Housing Federation predicts rising prices? Why is that news?

I agree fishnet. House price predictions always vary wildly, but if you look at who is making the prediction and what their interests are, a pattern usually emerges.

The report doesn't really make sense as a prediction, as it doesn't seem to take account of affordability, which it acknowledges "hasn't improved one iota". Think this is more about persuading the government that it needs to build more houses rather than economic reality.

This particular price boom was fuelled by loose lending which I doubt is going to amke an appearance any time soon.Rising prices is not good news and hardly likely to happen unless salaries rocket

Couldn't agree more, noddy. I don't really understand why runaway house price inflation has been presented as a thoroughly good thing in recent years while the government and the Bank of England have taken great pains to keep close checks on all other forms of inflation (not that it's doing them much good now of course).

Because wage inflation is a bad thing - it means the proles get more. Property inflation is a good thing, the rich get richer. And it means there is less social mobility as those who don't have property can't afford a stable home. Which is what we all want, right?